I'm a Libertarian living in Humboldt County, CA. I've lived here in Eureka since 1973 and joined the Libertarian Party in 1992. This blog will mostly focus on local political issues, but I may stray into state and national issues as well, when I can't help myself. Please post your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Although I do moderate comments, you need not be a registered user to post them.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Implementing Legal Marijuana Laws

Reason magazine takes a look at two states that recently legalized marijuana. Focusing on Colorado, the writers suggest the proper way to implement marijuana policy. If they do it right, it could serve as an example to the rest of the country. Do it wrong and it could jeopardize legalization efforts in other states.

5 Comments:

Seems to me that the industry here enjoys prohibition , the idea of legalization dropped the price significantly. By the time it's our turn Philip Morris and the rest of big tobacco will be on board! Then what? Guess you'll just have to grow your own tomatoes and weed!

Every industry enjoys two things. Prosperity and consistency. The success of the pot industry has to reflect a balance of profits vs safety. If profits are WAY up, but safety is down, I would argue that the industry suffers. Same goes the other way. Too much safety brings the price down and the industry suffers.

Like any industry, its in constant flux and needs to be carefully managed to be successful.

I'm surprised the price isn't lower, considering how much pot there is around. I would think you'd almost have to give the stuff away with what appears to be a glut of pot on the market.

The thing about pot, unlike liquor and especially tobacco, is it's so easily grown.

As the article made mention of, governments are going to be tempted to line their own coffers with pot by taxing the bejeebers out of it. The problem is, if they tax it too much, it will be awfully easy for potheads to avoid that by growing their own. Either that, or the illegal growers might still be able to play the game by undercutting the prices of the taxed stuff.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I suspect we'll still see a pot war of sorts as governments try to shut down the untaxed stuff which could always be a threat to the taxed product sold in stores.

It is premature to think about what kind of laws should be enacted to legalize marijuana; rather, make the manufacture, sale and use legal first - this will move cash around stimulating the economy.

Then, review how the cash moves, what kind of impacts are occuring, then regulate the problems.

Of course, an immediate sales tax cut should acompany any marijuana sales related proceeds, just a given. The sales tax should be proportioned so that a certain "cut" goes into an account for future regulation needs, costs while the rest can be used to fund solely education. All drugs legalized for manufacture, sale and use should have tax bases that fund education, not bureaucrats who waste it on themselves. - HOJ

weed is easily grown, but hard to produce good bud without doing a lot of work. Growing anything is hard.....don't believe the lies by secret people who hide away from their own words. Simply put, phat cat business people HATE dope growers who flaunt wealth in the face of elitists, especially while wearing anything but 3 piece suits and colognes and stuff! - HOJ